After finally tracking down some of the TJ Maxx Suffering Bastard & Moai Bottles, I decided I needed a new Bedside lamp. Scuffed up the bottle with garnet paper, layed down some Automotive Primer, and a base of FleckStone, followed by several coats of Matte Black Enamel. Picked up a Bottle Lamp Kit, and threw on a shade I found in the attic when we moved in. Filled it with sand, and there you go! Total cost: $16.50. Next on the agenda, Moai Lava Lamp!

I went to Home Depot and bought their last two bottle lamp kits. I was unaware of this whole "turn everyday shiznit into lamps" craft thing. I love it! I'm about halfway through turning a Vinuva Pinot Grigio bottle into a desk lamp.

I don't care for the lamp cord running out of the bulb socket so I drilled a hole (with a diamond head dremel bit) in the back bottom of the wine bottle and ran the cord through there. Tomorrow I'm going get some aquarium gravel to weight it down (can't use sand since I drilled a hole in it) and it'll be finished. Then I'll need to find a cool Shag/Retro/Atomic/Eames Era/Danish Modern shade to put on it.

For the Suffering Bastard decanter I'm going follow your directions badmojo except I'll drill the hole in his backside and run the cord through there using the aquarium gravel for weight. In the "Tiki at TJ Maxx" thread I posted a pic of an extra large glass moai bottle that I found. I'm going to make that into a lamp too. I think I'll use a kit with a harp on that one since it's so damn big.

I'm looking around and seeing all kinds of stuff that could be made into lamps. Would it be sacrilege to take a perfectly good tiki mug (a cheap one like a Leilani), drill a hole in his ass and turn him into a lamp?

The dremel worked great. But you have to use a diamond taper tip bit. The other bits don't even put a scratch in the glass. I tried using a drill first but the bits did nothing and I don't have any glass cutting bits. But the diamond tip dremel did great! The Vinuva lamp is finished and the SB is scuffed up, drilled out and drying. The primer will be put on tomorrow.

Turbogod, that's a really cool site. Those are some swank lamp shades.

Thanks badmojo for the idea. Are you going to paint the moai black as well or go for a different color?

Poly, I had zero problems drilling these holes, maybe because the glass is so thick. I used a couple of flea market cheapo diamond particle bits and they did the job nicely. The ones I used resemble the #7144 Diamond Taper Point bit that you can find at http://www.dremel.com/html/home_fr.html. They're pointy tapered bits. The bit did get molten orange from the heat and I had to apply some muscle to drill through but there was no crackage or breakage. Weight of the dremel alone wouldn't have gotten throught. Basically I would apply pressure until the motor started to bog and by this time the bit was starting to flame on. This only took a couple of seconds. Then I'd back off and let the bit air cool for a few seconds and return to natural color. Repeat again and again. Took 5-10 minutes and had no problems at all but then again this is some thick glass.

I think I need to clarify a couple things I didn't think about last night. First, I don't use a "Dremel" I use a Black and Decker RTX. It's just like a Dremel and all dremel bits and accessories will fit the RTX. The difference is the RTX is supposed to have a lot more torque than a genuine dremel and thus the motor is less likely to bog. I thought I should mention that. Also wanted to mention that I drilled through the glass at the highest speed setting which is 30,000 rpm.